On Jordan's banks the Baptist's cry

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1
On Jordan's banks the Baptist's cry
announces that the Lord is nigh.
Awake and hearken, for he brings
glad tidings of the King of kings!

2.
Then cleansed be every life from sin!
Make straight the way for God within,
and let us all our hearts prepare
for Christ to come and enter there.

3.
Stretch forth your hand, our health restore,
and make us rise to fall no more.
Oh, let your face upon us shine
and fill the world with love divine.

4.
All praise to you, eternal Son,
whose advent has our freedom won,
whom with the Father we adore,
and Holy Spirit, evermore.

Words:  Charles Coffin, Jordanis oras praevia, Hymni Sacri and Paris Breviary, 1736.
Stanzas 1-3 translated from Latin to English by John Chandler,
Hymns of the Primitive Church, 1837, alt.; stanzas 4 Hymns Ancient and Modern, 1861.

   Tune:   Musikalisch Handbuch..., 1690, arranged by William H. Havergal, Old Church Psalmody, 1847.

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